‘S-HERTOGENBOSCH, June 12, 2022
Dutch wild card entry Tim van Rijthoven has capped his dream run on home soil by winning his first ATP Tour career title at the Libema Open in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, colloquially known as Den Bosch. The World No. 205 upset World No. 2 Daniil Medvedev of Russia, top seed of the ATP 250 grass-court tournament, 6-4, 6-1 in Sunday’s singles final.
Van Rijthoven battled his way to the championship match through the bottom half of the draw with wins over Australian Matthew Ebden, Taylor Fritz from the United States, Frenchman Hugo Gaston and Felix Auger-Aliassime of Canada.
In his a maiden title match on just his second appearance in a tour-level main draw, the 25-year-old sent down four aces and won 84 per cent of his first-service points to secure victory in one hour and five minutes.
DREAM WEEK COMPLETE ✅
The moment @timvanrijthoven completed his fairytale run!@LibemaOpen | #LibemaOpen pic.twitter.com/DfqyZ10WpF
— ATP Tour (@atptour) June 12, 2022
“This is new for me, it’s going to take some time getting used to,” said Van Rijthoven, who had not won a tour-level match prior to this week, in his on-court interview. “What a dream this week. I would like to thank my team for staying humble this week, doing the normal things, not making this thing any bigger than it was.”
Van Rijthoven has become the first Dutchman to clinch the ‘s-Hertogenbosch title since Sjeng Schalken in 2003. The winner of eight ITF Pro Circuit trophies has earned the biggest prize cheque of his career so far, pocketing €98,580 as well as 250 ATP Ranking points.
Van Rijthoven is projected to reach a new career-high ranking of World No. 106 on Monday. Medvedev will reclaim the No. 1 spot.
